


Patience

by FawkesFire13



Category: Midnight Poppy Land (Webcomic)
Genre: Animal Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 05:08:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26759956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FawkesFire13/pseuds/FawkesFire13
Summary: Tora spends some time in reflection with Alice.
Comments: 26
Kudos: 61





	Patience

**Author's Note:**

> I had to say goodbye to a family pet, recently. I’m a firm believer that each animal that enters our lives teaches us something we needed to learn. Or gives us a gift. 
> 
> I suppose, in a way, I wanted to show that connection can be had with anyone who is willing to be patient and offer love.
> 
> A shout out to the ladies of the MPL Rambling chat. You ladies give me life.
> 
> Another shout out to the Seedlings. 
> 
> As always, all characters belong to Lilydusk.

The car didn’t slow down, and Tora looked up, amber eyes drawn to the road, his senses all too aware. He wouldn’t be fast enough, he knew it and still he growled angrily, furiously, as he felt his feet pound on the pavement. 

By the time he reached the street, he knew she was gone. The tiny body in front of him, motionless and still. The car was already half a block away, and suddenly, it didn’t matter, but the body in front of him did.

Black fur.

A fluffy tail.

One paw that had little white toes.

Tora knelt down and peeled off his hoodie, lifting the small cat from the street. Cotton enfolded soft fur. He touched her head once, wishing he had been faster. He knew this one. Alice had named her Snowy. 

Alice had a weird sense of humor.

Tora sighed and wrapped her gently, cradling her reverently and closed his eyes.

“I’m sorry, little girl.” He murmured sadly. “Alice is gonna miss you.” He looked around as he stood, the small bundle in his arms. People were such trash around here sometimes. Didn’t take much to slow down or be aware of your fucking surroundings.

This wouldn’t be the last stray that was killed just mindin’ it’s own business, trying to survive. 

Tora frowned and looked up the street. He should take her back to Alice. She might want to say good bye. This wasn’t going to be easy and for a few minutes he stood there, eyes closed and trying to control the shaky feeling in his body. 

He was the Tiger of Ares Street. He wasn’t supposed to be upset about a cat.

He had taken lives before. Nothing new.

But he hated seeing a innocent life cut short like this.

Even if it was a cat.

Especially if it was a cat.

When he first started working with Alice she’d had a pair of ginger colored tabbies she named Caramel and Tom. He didn’t like to admit it, but the two of them were what first made him want to keep coming back to work. Alice was a good soul, but as a teenager he had been resentful and angry towards almost every person he had met. The world wasn’t a kind place to kids like him.

Alice was patient, taking in strays of all species. And treated them with the same tough love across the board. Tora suspected she loved the cats more sometimes. Not that he blamed her. Looking back, he knew he had been a little shit. Always in trouble. Always looking for a fight. Alice wasn’t easy to love back then either. 

The cats had been easier.

Caramel had been sweet, would come right up to him without fail, begging for attention. Caramel would purr at the lightest touch of Tora’s clumsy teenager hands. Tom had been a bit trickier. It had taken months to earn more than a hiss from Tom. It had taken bribery using fish and hours crouched in silence behind the restaurant waiting for Tom to come to him. 

Those hours of silence had helped Tora find time to work things out in his own mind, and Alice had gently teased him. Saying: “it’s no use, Tora. Tom only likes Joe and me.”

That had made young Tora that much more determined to prove Alice wrong. In hindsight, Tora realized Alice probably was working a long con. Teaching him patience and kindness in a indirect way. 

With a lump in his throat he walked back towards Alice’s place, mentally bracing for the reaction to the message he was about to deliver. It was early still, and when he opened the door, and walked into the dining room it was clear Alice hadn’t even started dinner prep yet.

He could hear the soft clinking sounds of plates moving in the kitchen, the sound of friendly banter from the cooks. Familiar sounds.

Tora glanced around then walked up the stairs, already knowing the way. Knowing where Alice would be if she wasn’t out back using her vape. 

It wasn’t easy. Alice took one look at his face and she looked to the folded hoodie in his arms. 

“Oh no....” she whispered softly, her voice devoid of her normal abrasive tone. Alice had always had a soft spot of animals. The cats, the birds she tossed scraps to, the odd dog to cross her path. “Oh Snowy....”

Tora watched Alice’s eyes fill with tears and her tiny shoulders slumped. “Oh sweetie, you were supposed to stay out of the street.”

“Sorry....I couldn’t get to her.” Tora began, his throat felt too tight. Alice made a waving motion with her hands and she reached out to take the bundle from him.

“It’s not your fault. People are so.....superstitious of black cats. Idiots. Don’t bother to get to know them.” Alice drew back the folds and gently touched Snowy’s head, tears dampening the fur. Tora felt his eyes beginning to prickle, and he blinked twice quickly. “My poor little dear. I need...I guess I’ll bury her in the garden.” 

Tora helped dig the hole. He found the old shovel next to the shed behind the restaurant and began digging where Alice indicated. The garden tiny, and filled with bright color, it’s state reflected its keeper. Tough, brimming with life. Alice had really begun tending it in the years after Joe died. She added a small tree and some potted plants. Tora suspected it was easier to forget her pain that way.

He worked quietly, methodically. He thought about Caramel dying quietly in his sleep years ago. Alice had told him Caramel had been at least 15 years old at the time. Tom was different. Tom had been hit by a car as well, and had had enough fight left in him to make it to the door in the back of the kitchen. Tora had been about 16 at the time. He had heard the soft scratchy meow and had been the one to hold Tom as he slipped from this world into the next. He had buried him in the garden too.

The hole was finally dug and Alice came out, cradling Snowy, now wrapped in a soft blue tablecloth. As Alice said her goodbyes Tora waited patiently, silently, and helped put Snowy into the ground. 

Caramel and Tom had small pots with juniper bonsai trees over their graves. He was sure Snowy would have one too.

Alice sat silently on the back steps, the scent of green apple from her vape strong in the air. Tora sat next to her, a affectionate, peaceful understanding between them. Tora wasn’t sure what Alice was thinking, but he knew neither of them wanted to be alone.

The sky grew darker as they sat and watched the stars bloom against the inky expanse. One of the cooks had come out to check on them and Alice had just waved him away with instructions to open on their own. It would be a quiet night anyway.

“Snowy had been wandering around more lately.” Alice finally spoke. “I thought maybe she was going somewhere else to eat, like they sometimes do. But she always came back here.”

“Yeah. Well, ya got the best fish in Narin.” Tora answered, a ghost of a smile on his face. Alice shook her head.

“I’m not sure, Tora. I wish I knew where she had been disappearing to.”

“Cats wander a lot.” Tora offered. “Maybe she found a nice place to sleep during the day.”

“Ya might be right.” Alice was silent for a few more minutes. “I’m going to miss her.” Tora looked down at Alice. She looked older in this moment. More wrinkles and her gray hair looked whiter. If it was possible, she looked smaller. He wrapped one arm around the tiny woman. 

“Ya did what ya could for her. I’m sure she was happy with ya.”

He pretended not to notice the single tear running down Alice’s cheek. 

Tora stood in front of the restaurant, smoking his third cigarette. He wasn’t ready to go back to his apartment. Too quiet. And too loud at the same time. Tora didn’t feel like being around Quincey right now. He didn’t want the sympathy, or the smothering questions. Quincey was too damn observant for his own fucking good sometimes. 

Not for the last time in the past couple hours did he wish he was faster. Tora was many things, he could admit that to himself, but he had never harmed a animal. Tom and Caramel had opened his awareness to creatures. Their personalities especially. Animals didn’t judge your past sins. They just looked at what you were in the present.

He flicked his spent cigarette onto the pavement and ground his shoe over it. 

“Fuck this.” He muttered to nobody in particular. 

Maybe he could stop by Poppy’s.

The warm apartment filled with potted plants and books was always comforting. Her balcony always had a cool breeze that somehow managed to calm him. Poppy would be home by now. He needed to get moving if nothing else happened tonight. Just to keep his mind busy. 

He’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t want to somehow hunt down the driver that killed Snowy and unleash the force of his fury and rage on them. But what good was that going to do now? Snowy was gone, and nothing he could do right now would bring her back. 

Compulsively, he lit another cigarette and took a long drag. He held the smoke for a bit longer then he normally would and let it leak from his nose slowly. Finally the tears came, and while he refused to sob, the tears did fall. A painfully comforting reminder that he was still himself, under his name of the Tiger of Ares Street. 

“Mew?” 

The soft sound was unexpected to say the least, and Tora looked around in the darkness. He flicked his cigarette away and blew the last of the smoke from his lungs looking towards the alley next to that weird fake tree Alice had out front.

“Rrrrr.” 

Hmm.

Tora crouched, and saw a pair of blue eyes and a arched back. The kitten was small still, and looked absolutely pissed off. Black fur and tiny tail up in a creditable attempt at intimidation. The kitten let out a furious hiss as Tora approached. 

“Yeah, ya a tough guy, huh?”

The kitten let out another hiss and raised a paw. A paw with white toes.

Tora paused.

“Ah....I get it. You on your own now?” Tora crouched down, extending his hand out for the kitten to swat at. To its credit, it didn’t run away, but stood its ground, tiny body fluffed up and spiky with righteous kitten fury.

He glanced past the singular kitten deeper into the darkness. Two more sets of blue eyes stared back.

Snowy had been busy.

He looked down at the angry ball of fluff in front of him.

“I get ya. You keeping me from gettin’ to your family? It’s okay. I’m big and scary.” Tora leaned against the stone wall and sat down, trying to make it clear that he wasn’t about to scoop up the three felines and eat them. “Ya missin’ mom? I know how that feels.” He kept his hand out, watching the kitten puff up and take another swat at him. “I know how that goes. I’m sorry about that....I didn’t move fast enough. But I can take ya to someplace safe. What do ya think?”

Tora realized, in the back of his mind, if anyone else in the Clan saw him doing this, he would have to kill them to preserve his reputation, but whatever. He waited, watching this tiny cat hiss itself tired. Finally it approached and sniffed his fingers, seemingly unsure still.

“If ya stop being’ a little shit I can take ya inside to someone who will look after you.” Tora cajoled, using a voice that was more measured than he normally did. He watched the other two kittens walk over slowly now that Hissy Ass seemed to be calming down.

He was patient. Good things came to those who waited. 

It was about a hour, just sitting in a alley talking nonsense to them before he was finally able to pick up the first grey kitten, and then the grey and white striped sibling. By that point he had told these three kittens all about wanting to see the beach sometime soon, learning to wash dishes at Alice’s and a certain little brunette with huge brown eyes. 

“Come on, ya little runts. I know a lady that’ll love to see ya....”

The two grey siblings didn’t seem to mind being held that much, it was the black one that still wanted to do things on its own terms. One of the grey kittens batted at a loose strand of his hair. Cute. Alice was going to enjoy these two. Tora sighed and stood, holding the grey kittens and looked down at the black kitten, who stared back up at him. Gold eyes stared into blue. 

“I’m taking your siblings inside. You’re too young to be alone, and Alice is kinda rough, but she’s gonna love you. But you don’t wanna be told what to do, huh?”

The kitten gave a uncertain mew. Tora smirked and opened the door that lead into the hallway behind the kitchen. 

“Alright, door is open. All ya gotta do is go inside. She’s got real good food and I think she’ll set up a box or something for you to sleep in. Just don’t scratch her table clothes. She won’t like that.” 

He waited, patiently. The kitten let out a loud meow.

“Yeah, I know ya scared. But sometimes ya gotta risk stuff to win stuff. Wanna be around to take care of ya siblings? Ya gotta ask for some help. Let’s go.”

He stepped inside and the tiny black cat followed. Tora closed the door and walked towards the stairs, listening to the patter of kitten paws following him.

“Oi! Alice! Got a surprise for you.”


End file.
